User blog:Timefreezer4/Time's Top 100 Death Battles
Hello everyone. Since Death Battle is releasing its big 100th episode in just a few weeks, I thought it'd be nice to celebrate by going back through every episode of the show and reviewing them, before compiling it all together into a big top 100 list. I'll be updating this over the next couple of weeks until episode 100's big release, so stay tuned! Reviews Season 1 Boba Fett VS Samus Aran Pros *Pioneered the entire show *For his first time ever, Ben's animation wasn't actually that bad *Star Wars music worked pretty well for the fight *Samus' Power Beam having shit range is honestly kinda funny *Star Wars characters in DB are always a plus Cons *''Definitely'' outdated *Health bars are a sin *Too many slides that could easily be compacted *Not super well written, and none of the humor really lands *Wiz and Boomstick are basically the same character *Nothing super interesting happens in the fight Summary As the legendary episode that started it all, Boba VS Samus deserves at least some respect for kickstarting the entire series. Aside from that, however, and this episode's age really does show. There aren't really any jokes or entertaining lines in the writing, the animation is pretty straightforward, there are way too many slides in the analyses, and everything just feels lightly touched on before being skipped too quickly. However, even from a modern viewer looking back's perspective, this isn't really a bad episode. Though it is far outclassed by later episodes, it's never really boring or bad. It's easy to see the honest effort that went into this episode, and it's hard to give it too much crap when everyone was just starting out. As an overall Death Battle episode, it's pretty mediocre, but as a start to the series, it's a great jumping off point. Akuma VS Shang Tsung Pros *The animation is honestly pretty enteraining *The mid-air clash between Akumas in genuinely memorable and kind of awesome *The smiley face on Liu Kang is funnier than it should be *Fight flowed well for an inexperienced animator *Music is generally pretty well chosen *Despite Mortal Kombat sprites generally looking like ass, Shang fits surprisingly well with Akuma here *The "soul'd out" pun is a pretty good ending pun Cons *Health bars are still a sin *''Way'' too many slides *Wiz and Boomstick are still the same character *Little solid humor *Lacked Shin Akuma, which is disappointing *Not Akuma VS Shao Kahn Summary Though it lacks the honor of being the kick-off episode, Akuma VS Shang Tsung honestly feels like an improvement overall. The writing and analyses are more or less the same quality and entertainment value as the premiere, but the animation in particular flows faster and genuinely has some cool, memorable moments in it. Seriously though, did Flaming Skulls and Gohadokens really need their own slides? Like the last episode, Akuma VS Tsung is limited by its age and early series dating, but isn't really bad even from today's standards, at least entertainment-wise. However, the animation does push it in the overall direction towards improvement. Rogue VS Wonder Woman Pros *Boomstick's sexual humor is pretty funny *Faster paced animation feels more fluid *The writing feels pretty clean in general *No health bars *Rogue's kiss is a fun way to end the fight *Rogue had a pretty clean sprite *Pioneered the long line of Marvel VS DC episodes Cons *Wonder Woman looks pretty bad in the animation *Honestly a really weird matchup, even for the time *''Very'' inaccurate result *Fight was mostly just combo-block-combo, which isn't super engaging *While I like the sexual humor, it makes up too much of the episode Summary Once more, the trend of general improvement continues. Like how Akuma VS Shang significantly improved its animation compared to Boba VS Samus, Wiz and Boomstick start to come a bit more into their own this episode, especially the latter. This episode marks the start of a string of episodes with sexually based humor, which are some of the funniest in the entire series to me. Though dirty jokes definitely make up too much of this episode and starts to get old towards the end, it helps add a key bit of character to Boomstick the show desperately needed, and made the analyses notably entertaining ratner than just "there". In terms of animation, it's much faster than the previous episodes, which makes it feel more fluid than the last 2 and shows that Ben's animation skills were growing at a very quick rate. The matchup is a bit odd (like, why do this fight aside from them happening to be comic superheroines?), and the result is definitely outdated, as realistically, Wonder Woman's swords would prevent physical contact and her raw speed and strength should end Rogue before her power steal even comes into play. It is also plagued by too many slides like the last episode, and Wonder Woman's sprite looks pretty ugly, especially when compared to Rogue. Regardless, its result and matchup aren't that important to the episode's overall quality, and most of the other downsides are more nitpicks or just products of the time. I may prefer Akuma VS Shang's animation and have a few issues with the episode, but it deserves some respect as the first Marvel VS DC fight, and trend which would become a staple of the series, and is the first episode I would say is generally entertaining as a whole product. Goomba VS Koopa Pros *Pretty funny overall *"TELEPATHY POWERZ! OMG" *Koopa's "Other Skills" slide **"Forming lame gangs" *Goomba brain is half the size of an acorn *Surprisingly epic animation *Great choice of music to make fight epic *Fun matchup for 1st joke episode *Very fitting and fun death Cons *As fun as "TELEPATHY POWERZ! OMG" is, it didn't need to have its own slide *Goomba's sprite is significantly lower quality than Koopa's *When the Bullet Bills are flying all over the place, it feels like there's a bit too much going on at once on the screen *Most of the fight is really just a flying mushroom and flying turtle bumping into each other, which limits time for other potential creative bits and gets a bit repepetive after a while Summary Once again, Goomba VS Koopa continues the trend by improving on Rogue VS Diana's shortcomings. Like the former episode, GvK is pretty funny, but unlike RvWW, it doesn't get too one-note with the same type of joke, letting the whole episode feel fresh and fun. Also big props to Ben's animation work this time around. Though Goomba and Koopa bumping into each other gets a bit repepetive and there's just too much going on when they're weaving between the Bullet Bills, the fight still turned out to be far more epic and entertaining than I think anyone expected. Also like last episode, Boomstick feels like his character is growing more fleshed out into the comedic redneck we all know and love. It still has those early series issues of having a few too many slides for unnecessary topics, and Wiz hasn't quite grown into that necessary foil for Boomstick yet, but the former was even played to enhance the comedy, including little jabs and jokes in the slides. Such little jokes are a staple of the show, and often times are some of the funniest parts of later episodes. This is the episode that really got the show going, and it's honestly not hard to see why. Haggar VS Zangief Pros *Delving into their grappling styles was pretty interesting *Both Haggar and Zangief's sprites looked great *Comparing the Bull Sharks and Brown Bears was pretty interesting *The piledrive spin-kill was badass and the absolute best way to end this fight *Fighting up the building led to some pretty funny easter eggs being thrown out the windows *Both's outros of Mike punching a bald eagle and Zangief pile driving the Duck Hunt dog are wonderful *Boomstick's grief over the mayor's demise during the verdict was great Cons *Missing out on the humor of the last few episodes *Their fighting styles should've been combined into singular slides *While it led to fun fun things being thrown out the windows, not seeing them fight up the stairs is a bit disappointing *No Russia VS America reference Summary While this episode doesn't quite hit the comedic value that made the last 2 episodes entertaining, it treats both of these manly badasses rather well. This fight is pretty fun to watch, even today, and their piledrive spinning out of control is a fantastic way to show how similar these 2 fight while ending the fight in a badass way. The climb up, while unfortunately not shown, does lead to some amusing objects being thrown out the windows, like a Dragon Ball and Princess Peach. The closing clips to their analyses are also some of the best in the entire series, with Haggar punching the eagle and Zangief pile driving Duck Hunt still getting a laugh out of me to this day. Though it might be overshadowed by other episodes later on, Haggar VS Zangief is a fun fight to revisit even today. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Battle Royale Pros *Some pretty funny slides **"Rocksteady's worst nightmare" *Mikey being a druggie is a funny joke *Donnie's entire analysis feels pretty fun *The clash between Leo and Raph is pretty awesome *Donatello's death is comedically over-the-top Cons *Mikey is unneccessarily shit on this episode, making it feel biased *The fight's kinda boring before Raph and Leo go at it *Aside from druggie Mikey, rarely funny and sometimes boring analyses *The turtles' abilities feel very lightly touched on *The Leo VS Raph section could be a little longer *Not the prettiest sprites Summary After a slew of pretty solid episodes, this one honestly falls pretty flat. There are some jokes I like, and the last third of the animation is a pretty entertaining, but that doesn't fully make up for the otherwise boring analyses and early stages of the fight. Michaelangelo in particular was just shit on for comedic value, but unlike Goomba VS Koopa, where that worked because they are very much meant to be trash fodder, it just feels mean-spirited, spiteful, and even a bit biased against Mikey. This doesn't mean I think the result is biased, but a Michaelangelo fan coild easily reach that conclusion. It doesn't really help that the analyses also felt like they covered very surface-level material for the turtles, not providing much beyond the basic common knowledge for each turtle mixed in with the occasional fun fact. Season 1 never necessarily delved too deeply into the character's capabilities before Goku VS Superman, but it feels especially lightly covered here. Unlike some other people, I find Raph stabbing Donatello Caesar-style to be a pretty fun, over-the-top death, although I can see how it might make other people uncomfortable. I don't hate or even really dislike this episode, but it's definitely the first one I have significant gripes with and fails to shine with the charm of other season 1 episodes. Zitz VS Leonardo Pros *Fairly fluid animation *Wat better analysis for Leo *The Battletoads game's difficulty being canon is a really cool fun fact *"Zitz just needed to pull himself together" is a good ending pun *"Favorite color: Blue. Duh." *Animation portrayed Zitz's overpowering arsenal pretty well *Fun death Cons *Analyses & animation felt too short *Fight got a *tad* uninteresting after Leo went stealth mode *Sprites could be prettier *Leo VS White Ranger honestly probably would've been more fun to watch Summary Overall, this was definitely a better episode for Leonardo. It felt a bit short and the animation isn't Ben's best work, but it generally feels more entertaining than the Royale. Something about watching Zitz's torso slide off his legs is just fun, and a superior death to any in the previous episode. Leo's blades clashing with Zitz's shapeshifting weapons provided some interesting animation moments, though the 2nd half of the fight felt kind of uneventful, mostly due to Leo's sneaking around. Honestly, there isn't much more to say. It might not be among the best, was a good, but brief, episode. Yoshi VS Riptor Pros *Their clash of tones made for a funny animation *Baby cannon *Yoshi's analysis was pretty good *Music helped the tone be funny *Boomstick's car was funny Cons *Sprites do not work together *Riptors analysis felt way too short *Very short animation *Matchup really doesn't work too well Summary This episode is an interesting case. On one end, it brought one of the best classic Death Battle jokes in the form of the baby cannon, but on the other, this episode just feels wy too short, even shorter than Zitz VS Leonardo, which was an actually shorter episode. It also uses a matchup which really doesn't make any sense, but it also owns and plays off of that by creating a very clashing animation. Instead of awkwardly bumbling around, Yoshi VS Riptor owns the former's cartoony, light-hearted nature and the latter's much darker, more ferocious tone and embraces their clash. As a result, watching a 7' super dinosaur maul the shit out of a tiny green dino who throws eggs and babies at it to fight back is honestly really funny. However, this episode just isn't given the needed time to explore that interaction, and the rest of it is honestly pretty forgettable, so this episode does fall a bit behind despite its interesting clash. Felicia VS Taokaka Pros *"You think it would be wrong to-YES" *"Felicia, she can really move! Felicia, she's got an attitude!" *"It's a booby lady!" *"After the thing people bitch about in the comments" *Fairly tolerable for a person who hates cats Cons *As someone who hates cats, this is not a fight geared for me *Kinda bland animation *Aside from the quotes above, analyses are kinda standard *Butterfly chase didn't work for me Summary I'll try to keep this one brief. Honestly, I have a natural bias against this episode. As someone who really dislikes cats, this fight would have to go far above and beyond the normal quality to entertain me. It could be a lot worse for someone of my demographic, and quite a few of the lines said in the episode are honestly pretty funny. However, biases aside, the analyses still feel a bit standard to me, and the animation doesn't really do anything interesting with the characters. They more or less just rapidly slash at each other in back-and-forth combos, which is a bit less than original, and even that was ground to a dead stop for the butterfly chase. I understand that it was meant for comedy, but the butterfly just didn't work for me. I feel it completely destroyed the pace of the fight, which really wasn't worth it. Overall, it could be worse for someone like me, but my biases bring me to like this episode less than it honestly probably deserves. Kratos VS Spawn Pros *"Just like Michael Jackson" *"For.... obvious reasons" *"God looks like my nana... am I a demigod?" *Really clean animation **Clash between Blades of Exile & Leetha's chains are especially cool *GoW music works well in fight *Cool to have both Kratos & Spawn in DB Cons *Analyses mostly feel like a list of abilities than an entertaining rundown *Sprites could be quite a bit prettier *Pretty clearly one-sided, even for season 1 *All of Kratos' weapons could go on 1 slide Summary This is a really good episode, all things considered. Though the analyses do feel a bit like just listening to a list of their abilities, Boomstick adds enough fun commentary like the quotes above to add at least some humor to the episode. However, this episode really shines in animation. Though the sprites aren't the greatest out there, there were some really cool clashes between Kratos and Spawn in this episode that feel more thought out than earlier episodes. Watching the Blades of Exile collide with Leetha's chains is pretty badass, and Spawn using his elemental magic to make the flame on the Bow of Apollo consume Kratos is a clever use of his powers earlier episodes failed to achieve. Add in the classic God of War soundtrack and some of Ben's fastest, cleanest animation, and this animation is definitely one of the highlights of the season. However, even for the time as an early series episode, the matchup does feel like a bit of a mismatch and very onesided in Spawn's favor, even if it provided a really cool opportunity to include both in Death Battle. Bomberman VS Dig Dug Pros * Cons * Summary Vegeta VS Shadow Pros * Cons * Summary Mario VS Sonic Pros * Cons * Summary Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 Rankings Season 1 Episodes 10) Felicia VS Taokaka 9) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Battle Royale 8) Yoshi VS Riptor 7) Boba Fett VS Samus Aran 6) Zitz VS Leonardo 5) Akuma VS Shang Tsung 4) Rogue VS Wonder Woman 3) Haggar VS Zangief 2) Kratos VS Spawn 1) Goomba VS Koopa Season 2 Episodes Season 3 Episodes Season 4 Episodes Season 5 Episodes Time's Top 100 Death Battles 10) Felicia VS Taokaka 9) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Battle Royale 8) Yoshi VS Riptor 7) Boba Fett VS Samus Aran 6) Zitz VS Leonardo 5) Akuma VS Shang Tsung 4) Rogue VS Wonder Woman 3) Haggar VS Zangief 2) Kratos VS Spawn 1) Goomba VS Koopa ~Best wishes, Time~ (talk) Category:Blog posts